Can't decide?
We can help you make a decision...
Click to get your decision matrix now!...allow you to weigh up all of the factors which are most important to you when you have a decision to make. Please use the tool below or one of our templates in the menu to help you make a decision. The Weighted Decision Matrix was invented by Stuart Pugh. Scroll down or choose a template from the menu to start.
...allow you to weigh up all of the factors which are most important to you when you have a decision to make. Please use the tool below or one of our templates in the menu to help you make a decision. The Weighted Decision Matrix was invented by Stuart Pugh. Scroll down or choose a template from the menu to start.
...allow you to weigh up all of the factors which are most important to you when you have a decision to make. Please use the tool below or one of our templates in the menu to help you make a decision. The Weighted Decision Matrix was invented by Stuart Pugh. Scroll down or choose a template from the menu to start.
Decide on the factors affecting your decision and list them in the first column below
Weight the factors affecting your decision. The higher the number you enter, the more important the factor
List all of your possible options. These are the potential answers to your question
Give each option a score against every factor to produce your very own Weighted Decision
We are in the early stages of development so if you have any suggestions please let us know via Twitter or Facebook or our contact form
Click to skip and go straight to the Weighted Decision Matrix.
The first thing to consider is obvious – what’s the decision you need to make! It could be something simple or more fundamental, it really doesn’t matter, the decision matrix will cope with either scenario. We like to use it for big family decisions such as where to go on holiday or what sort of car do we get next. You can all look at the screen, decide on the factors involved and then debate the scores and when you do that all angles are covered. Coming soon, you’ll be able to save the decision you reached and send it to your friends and family via email, Facebook or Twitter! So, what to do…
1. As above, choose the question to answer, double click on the “Type your question here” cell and type it in
2. Next you need to decide on the factors involved in the decision you are making. When considering the question think Who, When, Why, What and How to prompt you to think of everything you need to. Look at our example on the home page to get you started.
3. Now you need to weight the factors you settled on in 2. It’s easiest to do this by giving the most important factor a value of 5 and the least important a value of 1. It’s important to do this but if you really can’t decide on the order it is okay to give two factors a weighting that is the same. We don’t recommend it as you are less likely to get a clear result but hey, that’s up to you.
4. List all of your possible options on the options row next, any order you like.
5. The final step is to score all of your options out of 5 or 10 or even a hundred against all of the different factors. So option A may score a 5 for the first factor but only a 1 for the second but both could end up with the same weighted score depending on how you set up the weightings in step 3. Confused? Just have a go and it will all become clear.
We will be making a video to show all of this shortly so don’t forget to come back soon to check it out but if you get really stuck you can tweet us or ask a question on Facebook as well. Have fun!
Use our free weighted decision making tools and templates to help you decide what to do! Take a screen print and share your decision with friends (Ctrl + PrtSc on PC or CmdShift3 on a Mac).
You can also download a decision matrix here:
What! I hear you say, is that a serious question? Well I overheard someone making a claim for the benefits of alcohol in decision making and whilst I don’t make a habit of listening in to people on trains this caught my attention. I thought it would make a good blog post (or if it doesn’t tell us all below in the comments!) so how did the argument go…
Firstly, it should be said, the person I was listening to was referring only to short term benefits and in no way was making a point about any long term benefits to decision making through regular drinking. I think we all know the folly of that but his argument was basically along the lines of, “I get drunk, I make good decisions.” He justified the argument with the following points…
Hmm, some pretty dodgy thought processes going on there! Maybe he was drunk at the time! Isn’t it just a sad selfish fact that when we get drunk we are less worried about the consequences of our actions? Drink equals stupid decisions.
One final thought, if drinking is great for making decisions as this guy maintained then why do we have to spend so much time the following morning explaining and apologising for the actions we took the night before! Clearly the guy on the train was an idiot don’t you think? Oh, and he was about 38 by the way so should know better.
Have you ever made a good decision whilst drunk? Tell us in the comments below.
The Weighted Decision Matrix is a very simple tool designed to help anybody make a decision (e.g. what shall I eat for tea) by breaking it down into the multiple factors that must be considered (e.g. Taste, Nutrition and Preparation time). Those factors are then weighted in order of importance so that the most important factor has the most bearing on the result obtained. The potential options (e.g. Fish, Sandwich, Rice or Pizza) are all scored against the factors being considered, the tool then calculates a score taking into account the weightings and a decision is reached which will rank the options in order of importance. These examples are worked through below and the scores represent our opinion and not fact! The weighted decision matrix was invented by Stuart Pugh.
